THE FISCAL QUESTION 123 



character is a peculiarly individual possession, and must be 

 built up entirely from within. In this respect the states- 

 man's function, like that of every individual, is entirely 

 secular : he can touch, not life, but its outer environment. 



On the other hand, however, there is an environment 

 which is favourable to a good life and an environment that 

 is unfavourable. There are circumstances which provoke 

 the rectitude of a people and circumstances which provoke 

 the opposite. And these the statesman can affect, making 

 it_easjer_for his people to be good_or bad. Indeed, he 

 cannot avoid affecting them ; and, in this respect, there is 

 no act of statesmanship which has not its moral meaning. 

 Every law inscribed upon the statute-book alters the con- 

 ditions under which someone lives ; it establishes rights, 

 defines duties, and creates opportunities of a better life, 

 or places obstacles in its way. That the State does not 

 directly inculcate morality, or cannot compel the people to 

 pray, that it can best serve both religion and morality 

 by letting them alone, does not touch the truth that it 

 ought to foster the conditions favourable to the good life. 



In so far as the State is progressive and its legislative 

 action wise, it can hardly be said to be doing anything 

 else ; for it is only by fostering such conditions that it can 

 provide for the larger and freer life of its citizens. But to 

 do this is to act as a moral agent ; and no private indi- 

 vidual can do more. Hence it is a wrong to the State to 

 regard it as a mere organ of secular force, and its policy as 

 having no ethical character. It never is a mere secular 

 force, and its might, in reference to its own citizens, is 

 always measured by its moral right ; for it itself is nothing 

 else than the embodied conscience of the people. 



It is the story of a moral agent, ameliorating the condi- 



